Computer systems and related technology affect many aspects of society. Indeed, the computer system's ability to process information has transformed the way we live and work. Computer systems now commonly perform a host of tasks (e.g., word processing, scheduling, accounting, etc.) that prior to the advent of the computer system were performed manually. More recently, computer systems have been coupled to one another and to other electronic devices to form both wired and wireless computer networks over which the computer systems and other electronic devices can transfer electronic data. As such, the performance of many computing tasks has become distributed across a number of different computer systems and/or a number of different computer environments.
For instance, cloud computer services that include databases and tables implemented across various computer systems are becoming increasingly popular. Furthermore, cloud databases and tables often include hundreds of thousands, or even millions of databases/tables, each of which may comprise terabytes or more of data. Accordingly, storage efficiency, especially in relation to backups can be crucial in the management of such systems. For instance, many cloud computer services offer subscribers the ability to store particular data within provided tables. As the data is written to and then deleted from the tables, garbage collection operations are often needed so that storage space may be recovered. However, garbage collecting can come at a large cost to the cloud computer services in the form of large, and oftentimes inefficient, uses of resources.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.